(NaturalNews) A product called Adya Clarity has been sweeping across the natural health community in the last year or so. It has been sold with recommendations for internal use -- taking "super shots" -- and often accompanied by wide-ranging claims that it treats cancer, kidney stones, hormone regulation, arthritis, and that it removes radiation and heavy metals.

NOTE: An important update to this entire issue has now been posted, revealing a new commitment by the primary distributor of Adya Clarity to conform to full-transparency product labeling, no promotion of internal use, and regulatory labeling compliance. For full details on this, read the post by Mike Adams at:http://www.naturalnews.com/034006_Adya_Clari...

Because so many readers have been asking me about Adya Clarity, I decided to look further into the issue. I was aided by some timely tips that came my way which I began to check out as an investigative journalist. What I found -- much of which is detailed in this report -- absolutely shocked me. But what do YOU think? Read my report and decide for yourself.

Unsubstantiated health claims

The claims that Adya Clarity is good for treating kidney stones, hair loss, arthritis and even cancer are, I discovered, entirely unsubstantiated for this product. There is simply no reliable clinical evidence supporting Adya Clarity to be safe or effective for any health condition whatsoever. Furthermore, there are many facets of this story that have raised red flags in my mind as the editor of NaturalNews.

For starters, Adya Clarity is primarily composed of sulfuric acid, iron sulfate and aluminum sulfate. Before being diluted and bottled, Adya Clarity starts out as Themarox, a mineral deposit mined in Japan just a few dozen miles away from Fukushima. This Themarox has a very acid pH value, near 0.5. In this state, aluminum sulfate is present in a concentration of 10.9 grams per liter, according to our research.

To make Adya Clarity, Themarox is diluted at roughly 10:1, raising the pH and diluting the sulfuric acid. Once bottled, Adya Clarity contains the following concentrations of metals and minerals, according to its label:

Do you see what's missing from this list? The aluminum sulfate. By my calculations, given that the aluminum sulfate starts out at 10.9 grams per liter, the diluted form of Themarox -- Adya Clarity -- contains roughly 1.2 grams per liter of aluminum sulfate. This is 1200 mg per liter, which is almost exactly 1200 PPM (parts per million). (Source: The MSDS provided to me by Adya, Inc. as a Word document, see below. This also corresponds to the PPM of aluminum claimed by the manufacturer, Shimanishi Kaken Co.,Ltd.)

Curious as to why aluminum sulfate was not listed on the label in the appropriate order of concentrate (under Iron and above Magnesium), I contacted Matt Bakos, the owner and importer of Adya Clarity and asked him this question. The reason he didn't list aluminum concentration on the label underneath iron, he told me, was because "I don't want to." He said it was listed as a "trace mineral" and that was sufficient. There was no need to list the 1200 PPM of aluminum in Adya because it "is not required," he told me.

I bet many of the people who paid $100+ per bottle for Adya Clarity would also be interested to learn there's quite a significant concentration of aluminum in the product they may have already begun ingesting.

So I pressed further. When challenged on this a second time, Bakos became angry and rather belligerent with me on the phone, and what began as a conversation quickly devolved into something of a screaming competition between he and I. When I suggested that the product name "Adya CLARITY" should achieve "clarity" on the label by offering full disclosure of its mineral and metal content, he became further outraged and ultimately accused me of not knowing what I was talking about and then threatened to involve his lawyers.

To me, these are classic red flags of people about which I have serious reservations. When I ask honest questions and instead of getting answers I get angrily attacked, I know something's up. This is doubly true given that I am well known as a friend of the nutritional products industry -- someone who consistently shares good news about products that offer substantial benefits and safety to informed consumers. (I've been doing this for eight years. This isn't new territory for me.)

By the end of this conversation, it was clear to me that I was not dealing with a person who was willing to provide reasonable answers to legitimate safety questions. I have this entire conversation recorded and on the record, with Bakos' permission no less, and I reserve the right to publicly release this recording if I think it serves the public interest. (I am not ashamed of my use of profanity in this context, which will become crystal clear to you if you hear this recording. It got quite heated.)

Imported as "battery acid"

One of the tips NaturalNews received on this story claims that Adya, Inc. was importing Adya Clarity under the description of "battery acid." I could hardly believe this was true, so I checked it out myself.

What I found was surprising but true: On the ImportGenius.com website, a query of "Adya Inc" from Coldwater, Michigan turns up numerous entries of imported materials from the SHIMANISHI KAKEN CO. in Japan to ADYA INC in Coldwater Michigan.

What these import records appear to indicate is that Adya, Inc. is importing materials which are described as battery acid. What's wrong with that? Well, Adya Inc. is not in the battery business. They are in the business of selling an acidic liquid as a water additive labeled for human consumption. It is rather evident that the "battery acid" liquid claimed on the shipping manifests is, in fact, the raw material ingredient for Adya Clarity.

"Super shots" for internal use

The Adya Clarity product has also been widely promoted by Adya Inc distributors as something for internal use, via the taking of "super shots."

The Adya Clarity bottle label even directs customers to consume the product:

"Add 1 teaspoon per 1 gallon of water, stir and enjoy the crisp, clean taste of Adya Clarity water," it says. This clearly implies drinking the water containing the Adya Clarity (how else would you "taste" and "enjoy" it?) Thus, the product label itself is promoting the product for internal use.

Much of the promotional material also recommends Adya Clarity for internal use. This is an oft-repeated message in the videos and webinars used to promote the product.

Adya Clarity is a food?

During my recorded conversation with Matt Bakos, he insisted that Adya Clarity was a "food" and compared it to eating bananas and other fruits. This, on its face, is absurd.

Not by any stretch of reason is Adya Clarity a "food" anymore than, say, uranium is a food because it is also mined out of the ground. Adya Clarity is derived from a mineral deposit to which sulfuric acid is added. Adya Clarity does not grow on trees or bushes. In fact, it is derived from rocks mined near Fukushima and pulled right out of the ground, then combined with sulfuric acid as part of its manufacturing process.

Adya Clarity might be described as a collection of industrial chemicals used for water purification, which is of course almost exactly what was described on the shipping documents with the phrase, "INORGANIC CHEMICALS."

Adya Clarity has been widely mislabeled

In my interview with Bakos, he claimed that the current labeling of Adya Clarity is incorrect because "someone hacked into their computers" causing all their labels to carry incorrect information. (Really? Don't you check your labels before printing them? Or before labeling the products? Or before shipping out the products? Is there really this much lack of quality control at Adya Inc? This is truly concerning...)

I asked Bakos if he had issued a product recall as a result of the mislabeling. He explained no, there was no need because the product was not "contaminated" with anything.

So I asked if there was an effort under way to email all the customers and inform them of the mislabeling. Again, he said no, giving an unsatisfactory explanation of why this was not necessary.

So I asked if his new labels appropriately listed the amount of aluminum contained in Adya, in the appropriate order of concentration, underneath Iron and above Magnesium. He replied that no, aluminum was not listed there because he "didn't want to" list it there. Instead, it was listed under "trace minerals" along with other trace minerals and elements.

Now, to be fair, there is a trace amount of aluminum in lots of things, including Himalayan salt, bananas, and even some brands of baking powder (among other foods). A trace level of aluminum is not typically a concern, although cumulative levels of aluminum do begin to become a concern if consumed regularly. On that note, 1,200 PPM of aluminum sulfate -- when people are drinking "super shots" of this liquid -- is very concerning to me, just out of a sense of caution and basic knowledge of biochemistry.

That Bakos admittedly made a conscious decision to avoid listing aluminum sulfate in its 1200 PPM concentration on the label, and instead put aluminum in the "trace minerals" section of his product's label, smacks of deliberate deception. Why would Adya go out of its way to hide the aluminum concentration in Adya Clarity even though the other macro minerals and metals are clearly listed with their accompanying concentrations?

It appears that there's not as much "clarity" with Adya Clarity as we might have hoped.

Where is the official MSDS?

Everywhere I turned to ask more questions about Adya Clarity, I found unsatisfactory answers. When I inquired about the Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS), which is required for all hazardous materials being transported in large quantities, I was given a Word document which looks like somebody just typed it up on their own. That's very different from an official MSDS, which should look more like this (from an unrelated website):http://www.sciencelab.com/msds.php?msdsId=99...

The MSDS I was given could have been easily modified in a text editor. Even then, it contains the following warnings:

Handling and storage; Handle with acid-proof tools made of plastic or stainless steel. The workers should wear acid-proof clothes and gloves. The products should be stored in acid-proof containers such as plastics. These containers shouldbe stored indoor location.

Iron overload?

Adya Clarity contains 2,000 PPM of iron, according to the label. Consuming it in "super shots" in the way Adya has been marketing could mean introducing high levels of iron into your diet, and many Americans are already in a state of toxic iron overload, says Dr. Richard Kunin, a highly celebrated biochemist and expert researcher who spoke with NaturalNews after reviewing the Adya Clarity label.

"I'm concerned about the iron content. A lot of people are sensitive to an overdose of iron, and if they're eating oatmeal in the morning, they're getting 10mg of iron right there. It all adds up. I'm seeing people who have too much iron, This is a very big problem," Kunin told NaturalNews.

Even worse, there is a genetic iron overload condition called hereditary hemochromatosis which causes some people to experience acute iron toxicity even from relatively mundane levels of iron intake. Dr. Richard Kunin told NaturalNews that 18mg of iron intake each day is the upper safety limit on a day-to-day basis, but Adya Clarity "super shots" can add 10mg per day (depending on the size of the shots, of course) to the iron intake of a typical consumer who may have already consumed their iron limit for that day.

This is especially prevalent among the vegetarians and vegans to which Adya Clarity has been widely marketed. According to the NIH, for example, just 3/4ths cup of oatmeal contains 18mg of iron all by itself! (http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/iron) If you start your morning with 3/4ths cup of oatmeal, then you add a "super shot" of Adya Clarity to your morning coffee, you could be consuming 23 mg of iron even before you finish breakfast. By the end of the day, you could easily exceed 40mg or 50mg of iron in just one day through the consumption of vegetarian foods and a couple of Adya Clarity "super shots."

That's because many foods favored by vegetarians are also high in iron, including:

Soybeans - 8.8mg of iron in one cupLentils - 6.6mg of iron in one cupKidney beans - 5.2mg of iron in one cup

If you look at the typical diet of a vegetarian or vegan, it's not difficult to imagine that many people could be consuming 30 - 40mg of iron in a day. If you add another 10mg of iron on top of that through Adya Clarity "super shots," you could very easily put yourself in a state of acute iron toxicity, from which the best known remedy is blood letting to eliminate excess iron.

What really happens when you take too much iron? "In the body, the iron starts oxidizing everything; it will oxidize vitamin C, it will go to the liver where iron will be accumulated and over time make people more susceptible to hepatitis, either viral or chemical," says Kunin.

"The iron will then act as an amplifier, promoting an inflammatory response in the liver, and likewise in the kidneys," Dr. Kunin continued. "If it accumulates in the brain, it makes any other chemical insult to that part of the brain even worse. It's linked to arthritis, and in men it can go right to the gonad and cause you to lose your potency."

For the record, Dr. Kunin has not yet had time to study Adya Clarity's effects in the human body (Adya is still a relatively new product). He is merely expressing his well-informed views about biochemistry and the impact of dietary iron on human health. Given that Adya Clarity contains a relatively high level of iron (it's the most concentrated mineral in the product, with aluminum the second), it only makes sense to consider the health effects of increased dietary intake of iron, especially if consuming liquids with iron concentrations of 2,000 PPM.

"So just watched [the] webinar as well and was interested in the supposed benefits. And before I decided to buy (and while the webinar was playing) I was doing research on the internet. Has anyone experienced any of the side effects detoxification mentioned in the videos? Such as the blackened finger tips and lead taste in the mouth or the kidney stones?"

This raises red flags for me, as "blackened finger tips and lead taste in the mouth" are potential signs that could very well indicate metal toxicity. I find it further concerning that positive effects of Adya Clarity are often described as evidence that the product works, while negative effects that people experience are often explained away as "detoxification experiences."

Not everything is a detox, folks. Sometimes there is a far more worrisome explanation for such experiences.

Adya marketed with recommendations for internal use

Adya Clarity has been marketed with direct recommendations for consuming it every 12 hours, using text like this:

"As far as super shots are concerned; taking a super shot is an off label use. Mix 1 teaspoon of ADYA in 1 oz. of water. If this is too strong to the taste, you can use more than 1 oz of water. Drink one Supershot immediately upon waking in the morning. Repeat every 12 hours."

To their credit, the marketers of Adya Clarity did at least recommend that customers "consult with a doctor or medical professional before someone decides to use super shots."

Also, for the record, I do not believe that the marketers of Adya Clarity would knowingly sell a product they thought was harmful. Much of the information in this article is likely to be a surprise to those who have been marketing Adya Clarity.

More information will no doubt come to light after the publication of this article, and NaturalNews plans to continue to cover this story.

Action items: What should you do if you bought Adya Clarity?

If you purchased Adya Clarity, what should you do with this information now?

First, I suggest you think twice before ingesting any inorganic material. Ask the commonsense questions you should ask about any non-food product that is being aggressively promoted: What's in this? Is it safe to consume? How does anybody know it's safe? Is there a track record of safe use? Is there an independent source that can corroborate the product's safety without being financially involved in the product?

If you can't get green light answers on these questions, I would recommend avoiding consuming that product.

Second, listen to your intuition: Is the marketing too good to be true? Is it being heralded as a "miracle" cure for whatever ails you? Certainly, there are supplements that are almost miraculous in nature, such as vitamin D, or astaxanthin, or even phytonutrients like resveratrol. But "miracle" nutrients are rare, and they usually come from living systems (plants, for the most part), not from rocks. While both trace minerals and macro minerals have a crucial role to play in human health -- I've promoted many trace minerals myself -- when they are mixed with relatively high concentrations of aluminum and iron, any biochemist or nutritionist would naturally begin to ask some commonsense questions about ingesting that product on a regular basis.

Third, if you bought Adya Clarity merely to cleanse water due to its coagulation action, then it will obviously still function in that way, and there's no need to return it or ask for a refund. It can conceivably function as an emergency water filtration technology.

But as a side note, you can purchase aluminum sulfate from Amazon.com for just a few dollars a pound. Iron sulfate and magnesium sulfate are similarly inexpensive. If you're only looking to treat dirty water with coagulation minerals, you can do it for a whole lot less money by simply purchasing bulk minerals on the internet. For example, here's 4 pounds of aluminum sulfate for less than ten bucks: http://www.amazon.com/Bonide-Aluminum-Sulfat...

I wouldn't personally use this Bonide Aluminum Sulfate to filter water, however. It's made as a plant fertilizer. I would prefer to use a ceramic water filter or a Big Berkey filter, or something with a carbon block in it, perhaps. There are lots of good water filters on the market today, and many of them produce clear, drinkable water at just a few cents per gallon.

Aluminum sulfate's use as a chemical flocculant

This is one of the observed properties of Adya Clarity -- when you pour it into a glass of dirty water, many of the impurities in the water coagulate and then, over 24 hours or so, they settle to the bottom of the container, leaving the water above these coagulants less polluted.

In municipal water treatment facilities, aluminum sulfate is often used for the same purpose in one stage of the water filtration process. But importantly, there is another stage after that which REMOVES the coagulated metals and minerals so that they don't enter the water supply. No one in a water treatment facility would recommend you actually drink the coagulant!

Yet Adya Clarity implies this behavior on its label, where it says you add Adya Clarity to water and then "enjoy the crisp, clean taste of Adya Clarity water," without mentioning that you should never drink the coagulated gunk in the bottom of the glass.

Deadly aluminum sulfate poisoning in the UK

In 1988, a 20-ton load of aluminum sulfate was accidentally dumped into the municipal water supply in a town in the UK. What followed was a mass poisoning of the citizens in a 140-square-mile area. As reported in the Dailymail (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5024...) :

"As she starts to walk, it is with a heavy limp and within 50 yards she is so exhausted that her entire body shakes uncontrollably. After Angela finally reaches the local coffee shop, the trembling of her swollen legs is so bad that the table rocks haphazardly, threatening to spill her mug and croissant onto the floor.

No wonder, near to tears, she declares bravely: "When I am dead, I want an autopsy done on my body. It might help all the people who, like me and my two children, drank the water in Camelford all those years ago."

For she and her family were victims of one of Britain's most high-profile public health scandals in which victims complained of brain damage, memory loss and joint problems."

...By nightfall that day, people were vomiting and had diarrhoea. Next morning, many had skin burns, aching joints and mouth ulcers that took weeks to heal.

...A few months later Angela became ill.

...She was diagnosed with cancer of the lymph glands of the leg. She had an operation to remove the resulting malignant growth on her left thigh. She has since undergone another operation to remove a new growth on the same leg."

Notably, the fingernails turning blue being reported in this story as a result of aluminum sulfate poisoning is strikingly similar to the "blackened finger tips" eluded to earlier in this story, which has been described as a "detoxification" effect. (http://www.listen2yourgut.com/blog/does-adya...)

Of course, the level of toxic exposure to aluminum sulfate that occurred in the UK was at extremely high levels -- far higher than what a person would likely experience from consuming "super shots" of Adya Clarity. Yet this historical event demonstrates what can happen when aluminum sulfate is consumed in toxic quantities. It's not a pretty picture.

My 15 concerns about Adya Clarity

In all, this investigation into Adya Clarity (also called "black mica extract" or Themarox) has left me with numerous concerns that I consider to be quite serious. Here are my top 15 concerns:

#1) I am concerned that Adya Clarity is mined just a few dozen miles from the Fukushima nuclear power complex that recently suffered a meltdown and spewed radiation into the atmosphere. I would hope that the supplier of Adya would publicly post a verifiable radiation test report to dismiss any such concerns about possible radiation contamination.

#2) I am concerned that the founder of Adya, Inc. describes Adya Clarity as a "food" when it is clearly not a food but rather derived from a collection of mined minerals combined with sulfuric acid.

#3) I am concerned that the concentration of aluminum in Adya Clarity appears to have been hidden from customers on the label by listing it in "trace minerals" when in fact it is the second most common element in the product, just after iron.

#4) I am concerned that the Adya Clarity manufacturer has such poor quality control measures in place that they admittedly shipped out a very large number of mislabeled Adya Clarity products -- and then did not feel any obligation to alert customers to this mislabeling.

#5) I am concerned that Adya Clarity is being marketed for internal consumption when there is no clinical evidence or even published scientific papers that have been made available to NaturalNews which supports the safety of the Adya Clarity product for internal consumption.

#6) I am concerned that the high level of iron in Adya Clarity may result in acute iron toxicity in some individuals who take "super shots" of Adya, especially if they are genetically predisposed to iron toxicity.

#7) I am concerned that Adya Clarity is imported as "battery acid" but sold as a health supplement for internal use.

#8) I am concerned that the level of aluminum in Adya Clarity may present a health hazard when consumed on a regular basis, as aluminum is well known to potentially accumulate in the human body and contribute to a variety of neurological disorders. We do not yet conclusively know this to be a fact, but neither do we know it to be safe, and that's the point. We should follow the "precautionary principle" when considering the internal consumption of non-food items containing concentrations of aluminum or other metals known to exhibit potentially harmful effects.

#9) I am concerned that when asked why he did not list the concentration of aluminum on the Adya Clarity label, the founder of the company told me, essentially, "Because I didn't want to." To me, this indicates a callous disregard for full disclosure to customers and a reckless abandonment of fundamental ethical principles that should always be present when marketing nutritional supplements labeled for internal use.

#10) I am concerned that the Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) I received from Adya Clarity appears to be nothing more than a non-official Word document and does not resemble the traditional MSDS documents typically accompanying hazardous substances. as a Word document, it could have easily been modified or edited to eliminate information that the importer did not want other people to see, in much the same way that the label was designed to avoid listing the concentration of aluminum.

#11) I am concerned that both children and expectant mothers may be especially at risk due to high consumption of both iron and aluminum, and yet there are no warnings or cautions that accompany the Adya Clarity product which would reasonably inform a pregnant women (or a mother of a child) to exercise caution in the use of this product.

#12) I am concerned that the unsubstantiated health claims being used to market Adya Clarity cast a shadow of doubt over the entire natural products industry which, in most cases, sells very safe, effective and well-documented products for consumption.

#13) I am concerned that in a time when most of us are trying to remove heavy metals, aluminum and other contaminants from our water (fluoride, BPA, etc.), Adya Clarity is being sold with the message that we need to add something to our water -- something that contains aluminum. This is especially concerning given that aluminum is one of the adjuvants used in vaccines, which is one of the reasons informed consumers seek to avoid vaccine injections.

#14) I am concerned that those who are marketing Adya Clarity did not exercise fundamental due diligence in determining the evidence-based safety of this product before marketing it for internal use.

#15) I am concerned that the Adya Clarity label contains no warnings about iron consumption and no warnings for cumulative aluminum consumption.

My principles and ethics

As the editor of NaturalNews, I have an obligation to keep my ear to the ground and pay attention to what's going on in the natural health industry. In the past, I have exposed the deceptive marketing practices of companies like General Mills, which sells "blueberry - pomegranate" cereal that contains no blueberries or pomegranates! (http://www.naturalnews.com/031053_General_Mi...)

I have helped expose dangers of vaccines and the aluminum contaminants in those vaccines, which many people believe help explain why vaccines may cause autism and other neurological disorders. Day after day, we here at NaturalNews seek to share information about health-enhancing products that are safe and effective while exposing dangerous chemicals in foods, cosmetics, medicines and environmental products that threaten human health.

In my years as NaturalNews editor, I have seen it all: The good guys who really offer remarkable health solutions, and the con artists who are selling quack products just to make a quick buck. I've seen products hyped way beyond their true merit and sold with outrageous claims that simply have no basis in fact, and at the same time I've seen humble nutrients like vitamin D -- which are truly miraculous -- never get the real publicity they deserve as truly amazing cures.

When I talk to people and start getting evasive answers about their products, red flags start to pop up in my head. An honest company selling a mineral complex like Adya, I believe, would have been happy to provide me with an official MSDS and some documentation supporting the safety of their product when ingested. An honest company would have honestly labeled their product to achieve full disclosure and not resorted to hiding one element by burying it in the "trace minerals" section of their label.

I personally did not find Adya, Inc. to be forthright in providing answers to my reasonable questions, nor in providing any reliable evidence whatsoever to support the idea that their product may be safely ingested on a regular basis.

My conclusions

Based on my research and considerable history in the natural products industry, it is my belief that the Adya Clarity product is mislabeled, and I have a question of whether Adya Clarity as it is sold today may stand in violation of California Proposition 65 due to its aluminum content.

Based on the evidence I have gathered, I believe the product presents a potential risk of harm to some individuals if consumed in accordance with the way in which it has been labeled and marketed.

Everything I have stated in this article is believed to be accurate and true. If any factual mistakes are brought to my attention, I will correct them in a timely manner and issue all appropriate corrections.

For the record, I have no financial stake in Adya Clarity, neither its success nor failure. I do not sell or promote any competing product. I am willing to testify under oath in a court of law to the statements and findings I have made herein. I write this out of concern for the safety of NaturalNews readers who deserve to hear the full story on this increasingly popular dietary product.

I am committed to taking whatever action is necessary to further investigate this story and help contribute to the safety of consumers who have put their trust in the natural products industry.

Watch NaturalNews for more updates on this topic, and thank you for your interest in this subject.

In addition to his lab work, Adams is also the (non-paid) executive director of the non-profit Consumer Wellness Center (CWC), an organization that redirects 100% of its donations receipts to grant programs that teach children and women how to grow their own food or vastly improve their nutrition. Click here to see some of the CWC success stories.

With a background in science and software technology, Adams is the original founder of the email newsletter technology company known as Arial Software. Using his technical experience combined with his love for natural health, Adams developed and deployed the content management system currently driving NaturalNews.com. He also engineered the high-level statistical algorithms that power SCIENCE.naturalnews.com, a massive research resource now featuring over 10 million scientific studies.

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